Chapter 4: JESUS

53) Is there a difference between
Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and does it matter to whom I go for help?

The difference between Jesus and the
Holy Spirit is a theological one, not a practical one. According to the
Course's theory, the Holy Spirit was created by God in response to the
thought of separation in His Son's mind. In reality of course, as we have
mentioned several times before, such a description in A Course in Miracles
is metaphoric, because how can God give an answer to something that never
happened? At any rate, the Holy Spirit can be more properly understood
as the memory of God's Love and the Son's true Identity as Christ that
he carried with him into his dream. The Holy Spirit, therefore, is a
principle or a thought in the Son's mind that reminds him that
what he believes about himself and his Creator is false. This correction
is what is known in A Course in Miracles as the principle of the
Atonement.

Jesus, on the other hand, is a part
of the Sonship, and is as tangible and specific as is the Son's belief
about himself. He is the part of the Son's one mind that "remembered to
laugh" at the tiny, mad idea. And therefore Jesus becomes a manifestation
of the Atonement principle, or of the more abstract presence of the Holy
Spirit. That is what is meant in the clarification of terms by the previously
quoted statement that the Holy Spirit "established Jesus as the leader
in carrying out His plan" (C-6.2:2), and by the passage in the text that
is a direct reference to Jesus:

The Atonement principle
was in effect long before the Atonement began. The principle was love [the
Holy Spirit] and the Atonement was an act of love [Jesus] (T-2.11.4:2-3).

On the level of practice, however, there
is no difference. Both Jesus and the Holy Spirit serve as our inner Teachers,
to whom we go for help in learning how to forgive. The Holy Spirit offers
the student a more abstract Teacher, if Jesus is a problem; while Jesus
is a more specific and personal form for the student to relate to. Either
one will do, however, for Their function remains the same. Nonetheless,
if Jesus is indeed a problem figure for students of his Course, then it
would definitely be in keeping with the Course's very principles for such
students to look at their unforgiveness of him. Thus they may explore its
deeper roots so that they may be undone, just as with any unforgiveness
that is present within their minds.

Reproduced with the kind permission of Gloria and
Kenneth
Wapnick and the Foundation for A Course in Miracles